so you want to build a space ship
by arron.williams.330
Summary: a group of friends take a stand against space pirates


Year 3012

C1

Collin stretched as the annoying yipping of his alarm clock finally pierced his dreams, he had been dreaming of space flight again. Stretching as he sat up Collin brushed wild brown hair from his face, he had been dreaming of his own ship for years yet in every dream the ship was different from small one seat intersystem craft to the larger ships like explorers and war ships.

Being seventeen he was now old enough to go to the university in tub the capital city of Gainer, the entire planet and surrounding space was all geared to one thing the recycling and repurposing of space craft and his uncle Harvey owned a good sized scrap yard on planet and space. Dealing in small to medium ships that could land on a planet. Ever since coming to live with his uncle after his parents were killed by pirates while prospecting, Collin had loved the scrap yard and helping his uncle's workers. Whenever he had time from school he could be found doing one of three things, helping in the scrap yard, rebuilding parts in the old warehouse/ assembly plant /hanger his uncle let him use on the edge of the scrap yard or in his room in his uncles house using hacked software to design ships.

Hauling his lanky seventeen year old frame out of bed Collin stumbles for a shower even half a sleep he deftly moves around the half reassembled lift coil on the floor, taken from an old Ford Z2 hover bike he was hoping to rebuild it to sell for funds for a new bike of his own, by saving and selling rebuilt parts for two years he now had the creds for a good Lincoln YT7 hover bike. After dressing and spending another fruitless ten minutes brushing his wild hair he headed down to breakfast.

His uncles house which was not really a house but an old series 4 mas lifter that had been so heavily modified over the last fifty years that now it was a house, had last seen space over 200 years ago. Taking his seat at the table in the dining room (mess hall) Collin placed his order of flapjacks and syrup with the kitchen bot. his uncle was already there reading the newspaper (really a single plastic sheet with basic touch interaction to flip pages) Looking up from his reading uncle Harvey asked 'starting university today, you got all your ducks lined up?' Collin absently nodded to his uncle's question, the smell of his arriving breakfast taking full attention of his teen mind. His uncle always used such strange sayings but this was one of his more common, it meant did he have all his priorities in order. Was he ready/ prepared? Did he have all the things he needed?

Digging in to his breakfast took all of Collins attention till little less than ¼ was left and his belly gave back some of his higher cognitive functions back. Thinking over what courses he had signed up for, ship design/engineering, Navigational math, electronic hardware and software and finance management, the last he took to keep his uncle happy as he expected his nephew to take over the business. Collin was determined to do his best hoping to get in to a top university or maybe be picked up or offered an internship with one of the bigger ship design and construction firms.

'Uncle I'm all ready to go I got all the things I need in my backpack and I got to get the tram ( an underground hover train system) see you tonight when I get back' Harvey was already back to reading, nodded as Collin grabbed his back pack and was out the door before his uncle finished nodding.

Thirty minutes later he was getting of his second tram ride near the college, muttering he had to get his new hover bike soon because he had nearly missed his second tram. Coming up to street level he turned right just three blocks from the university. The welcoming and introduction was last week, he had got to meet his teachers and fellow students. over the next few years of classes he was hoping to make friends and learn how to build a ship at least in the basics, but his first lesson was starting soon design/engineering the class he was real looking for would too. Arriving slightly early Collin pegs out a seat next to the windows and half way back settling in he looks around at the other students all but one he remembered had arrived before him but no one was talking just ignoring each other.

The slamming of the door opening mad every jump, standing in the door a short brunet leant on her knees panting, a few moments of heavy breathing she straightened up looking around 'thank god I'm not late' closing the door she quickly settled herself a seat over from Collin, moments later the door opened again but this time it was there teacher and he wasted no time getting started.

The second lesson was finance management the one he least looked for would too, the class was also full and Collin found himself sitting next to a rather chubby boy who introduced himself as Elric. Expecting a rather boring lesson Collin found himself presently surprised when the first topic was the pirate problem in its impact on trade between worlds. Having never found any other space faring alien's mankind had splintered in to hundreds of small kingdoms, principalities, democracy's and just about every other form of government mankind could think of, this created a rich hunting ground for pirates who took advantage of the lack of a single governing body to rape and pillage all the thousand worlds of man, fractured as they were all they had to do was go somewhere they were not wanted for a crimes to escape.

electronic hardware and software fallowed after lunch and after looking over what the course subjects were going to be Collin knew it would be easy he already knew more than they taught but he needed the certificate , after that was Navigational math his weakest subject he knew he would have to pay attention just to scrape by.

The first two weeks flew by with settling in to classes getting his first papers handed in and really getting a grip on being a university student.

Over the next year Collin made friends Elric from his finance management class, coming from a wealthy trader family, he was a font of information and help to Collin, being raised in such a family he himself found the class boring not because he was UN interested but because he already knew the course material.

Amber from his ship design/engineering class came with a bubbly personality and an almost instinctive insight to engineering mostly power generators and other power systems. Mostly self-taught she never missed a print of engineers weakly. Having similar interests the two became quick friends. After only a month, the blazing arguments the two friends would get in too was constantly amusing to their class mates and infuriating to the instructors as the two would quickly leave even them behind in confusion.

Collin thanked the gods every day that he was sat next to Jack the math genius, he was his only hope of getting through that course without losing his mind, quiet and taciturn he never said much, but it always seemed he knew what to say. Despite being quiet he held a strong fire within for R&D especially when it came to materials and alloys an outgrowth of his child hood love for geology.

Oscar was mad; Collin had a very strong feeling that the tech whiz kid was completely bonkers in their second week of lessons he had (thou no one else knew it was him) hacked the colleges mainframe and rebuilt the AI to look like and interact with everyone in the persona of a Greek goddess. Despite all the searching the perpetrator behind the act he was never caught. It was noted however in very quiet places that the AI performance was up 30%.

Over the last year the four young teens had become good friends soon studying together Collin had even taken them to the old warehouse/ assembly plant /hanger that is uncle let him use. Collin would always remember every first reaction to seeing the huge space, one of wide eye wonder. Collin explained that it was set up shortly after the planets founding as a repair site for the colonists ships, then later used as a warehouse. Giving a tour of the 975 feet (297 m) long 108 feet (33 m) wide and 36 feet (11 m) high building, he showed them the offices at the front first before showing them around the larger space pointing out the number of robot arms, folded up and shut down lining the walls.

It took little time for the four to start spending all there off time there and making changes, Collin helped Oscar search his uncles huge ground side scrap yard looking through old ships for parts, it took three days and hours of dismantling old or damaged computer parts.

Elric set about cataloguing and organising Collins supply of rebuilt parts and Amber rebuilding the electrical systems with help from Collin and Oscar looking for the parts she needed while out on their scavenging trips.

By the end of the year the old space looked very different the roof was covered in solar panels to provide power there were also two new rebuilt/recycled wind turbines doing the same. All the clutter in side had been cleared out, the old managers offices had been cleared out, were once Collin had spent his time tinkering in one room his friends now had a room each were they could work on projects or homework. Oscars pickiness on computer parts bore fruit after a few months as he was able to rebuild and program an old ships engineering AI, with Ambers work on their personal power grid the four friends were in there own nirvana.

Over the year Elric had worked with the others to help sell the parts they rebuilt or re conditioned, when done Elric would seek out buyers. With money coming in there group agreed to a joint account for the funds with each getting 10% for themselves with every item sold that they had worked on. Elric soon had to set up a separate contact for himself as word spread about good quality second hand parts.

Year 014

C2

As the start to their second semester came around the friends were lounging around on the sofas in their living room (it used to be the conference room) talking about the past year and all they had done together. A conversation between Oscar and Elric caught Collins attention:

'I'm telling you there getting worse' Elric was obviously passionate about the conversation. Oscar just shrugged 'what do you want me to do about it? I've only just turned 18 what do you expect me to do about pirates?' Getting more agitated Elric stood and started pacing 'You? Nothing, but our governments? The larger multi planet governments? Or maybe the bigger trader unions SHOULD do something; less and less trade gets through every year' Collin swung his feet down to sit normally rather than slugging about as Amber called it 'the only way to stop the pirates is to kill them, in space, in ships, that means war ships but not only that, war ships that can move freely and quickly through anyone's space, and that means trust between allot of very different governments some of which do not like the others a lot' siting back Collin slowly looked around as everyone was looking at him.'the chances of that happening ' pitched in Amber 'is like a gazillion to one, now a mercenary group the traders could go to and rent A guard ship for its travel could work' Elric had stopped pacing and was staring out in to space with one finger taping his chin a sign all the others knew meant he was in deep thought 'the mercenaries idea could work but that would be next to impossible to start, you would have to buy a ship and crew it with trusty people buy ammo for the missiles and guns add on port fee and ship registration and forms I cannot begin to count how many AND be given clearance in advance for as many governments as you can to work in their territory' Elric sat heavily in to his chair 'that would take a government to do' he sat back sighing shaking his head.

Jack took this moment to put down the book he was reading on the latest math theory 'all that space and auto construction equipment was designed to build ships, so it's out of date, that is the software is out of date' after looking Oscar in the eye he switches his gaze to Collin 'that however means we need a design to build and I know you Collin you have designed hundreds using real design software' looking next to Elric, Jack continued ' to do this we will need the paper work and contracts set up and a business face too contact other governments to see if they would be willing to allow it. Before anything however we need two things a real business licence and' looking back at Collin 'materials to build with'.

After the others had gone home Collin walked around the old warehouse/ assembly plant /hanger, it had had so many jobs in the past but it was big 975 feet (297 m) long 108 feet (33 m) wide and 36 feet (11 m) high. Later that night Collin dreamt about a ship in that space a ship he had designed.

Collin and his friends made plans and did research over the next year while keeping up with their course work. Having decided to keep it between themselves they each took on part of the project and set to.

Elric Looked in to the legality's of what they were planning and the paper work as well as those of other governments, Gainer was a single planetary governments so should seem harmless to most other governments , as well as there being the fact that they would be a privet business not a governments one. After months of research in to Gainer law Elric was surprised to come to the realisation that there were no laws for OR against a private military organisation like they were planning. The larger governments did have them, however they seemed to be more focused around armed guard ship of individuals and not as they were planning pirate hunting. Most governments also seemed to have bounties in place for destroyed pirate ships.

Oscar dived in to seeing what it would take to bring their place on line and able to build he quickly discovered it would take a huge overhaul of the AI he had built for it to be able to use the equipment they had, not just hardware, that he could get from the scrap yard but a massive software rebuild too. After months of collecting information on other auto manufactory's and hacking in to a few to get their OS system's Oscar spent every free moment working on upgrading their AI and tying it in to the auto build hardware they had in the warehouse/ assembly plant /hanger, Like Elric he became little more than a face at college to the others so focused on this new project.

Amber figured she had the easiest of all the jobs all she had to do was services all the 112 robotic arms that had spent the last 80 years neatly folded away at the edges of the huge room. Replacing servos and sensors was easy but boring very mind numbingly boring; she also became a master scavenger of the scrap yard having to hunt for parts on a nearly daily basis. It was during one of these that she found an old'ish repair ship it looked like it had lost a fight with and asteroid, its front half was crushed in. while scavenging in it rear compartments she found an old nano bath two meters long by one wide when working it would be filled with nanites that would break down materiel and rebuild to specification nano baths however were massive power hogs and were rarely used because of this. Amber decided to take it back any way, getting help from some of the regular workers the bath was soon back, the workers also told her were to find others. Ambers greatest discovery was a tachyon trap a high power source, a tachyon trap did as the name implies it traps a tachyon and then as it slowly breaks down the energy realised was converted to be useable. Tachyon traps only worked in space capturing one on planets was imposable this one however had one already trapped it must have been over looked.

Collin spent his time going over all his old designs before discarding them none were quite right, too big, too small, too slow, he really wanted something a small crew could use be fast and armed to the teeth. It was over two months later that he realised he had no idea how the pirates attacked and so set about fixing that doing research on pirate seemed to be two types of attack that he mentally called the swarm attack and hold attack, the swarm used one large mother ship that realised small one manned attack craft to beat a ship in to submission before calling in the mother ship to board and take control. The hold attack was one big ship with guns that would threaten to blow away the trader if they did not surrender, then used modified escape pods to board groups of fighters to take control before the big ship wold dock and transfer the goods. The swarm type seemed to focus on merchant shipping as there larger ship hold could hold more of the stolen goods. While the hold type was mostly used for passenger ships to take high end goods.

Halfway throe there second year the friends were once again gathered in their living room, since deciding to get the old place working again this was the first time they had all gathered to talk. Oscar started by telling every about his work over the last half year 'rebuilding the AI so it could use all the building equipment with only the stuff from the scrapyard was hard' stopping to blow on his fingers nails before polishing them on his shirt he continued with a smile 'but not beyond my magnificent skills, we now have an AI that any manufacture would love to have, Now then my fiends let me introduce….. Jeeves' a somewhat snobby voice responded from the wall speakers 'Greetings and salutations'. Amber promptly burst out laughing holding her stomach 'why in the seven heavens did you give it a pansy old English voice and named it Jeeves?' Oscar just shrugged 'I did not have a lot of choice for the voice and this one was the most intact requiring the least work as for the name' Oscar shrugged again 'I thought it fit'. Finally getting her under control 'did you manage to in cooperate everything I haled in too?' Oscar just nodded 'good then all the hardware is ready to go'. 'What did you hall in Amber?' Collin had learned not long after meeting Amber she had a tendency to go overboard. This time Amber got the tiger like smile 'well let's see a dozen nanite bathes of various sizes, a tachyon trap generator with a tachyon still in it and four dozen bots from the last three hundred years from house hold bots to ten S.R.R maintenance bots and All in working order' Oscar and Amber were both looking rather smug, and so they should thought Collin, that mast have taken a herculean effort on their part. Jack and Elric were both still goggling at Amber and Oscar when Collin brock the silence 'well ok then were ready too on that part, Elric what do have on the paper work side of things?' giving himself a quick shake Elric started 'Well I got all the paper work ready for a stranded ship construction firm as to the anti-pirate work well as long as were not govement affiliated and stay as only a privet protection company were good there two I also want to note that with the reconditioned parts we have been selling since last year we have a health bank balance and a very good reputation in second hand parts….the best on the planet as point of fact' now he had a smug smile too Collin thought to himself. Jack had been quiet so far but chose this moment to speak up 'well I cannot take credit for any as amazing as you have all done I have been looking in to pirate activity over the last decade and some patterns are floating to the surface but I still need more time'. Now Collin found all eyes on him, sitting back with a sigh he wasted no time to bring them up to speed on his part 'After going through all my previous designs…I discarded them, after thinking for a while I too looked in to the pirate attacks but un like jack I was more interested in the how. What I found was that the pirates came in two distinct types, one uses a large mother ship and launches small combat craft normally old military or repurposed shuttles to subdue their prey before calling in there larger mother which would then force a docking and over whelm the small trader crews, the reason for the large mother ship then becomes obvious as they move all they can from the fraters hold to the big ship' pausing for a sip of water he noticed that all eyes were on him ' The second kind uses medium hulls like the cargo ships but bolted on weapons and threatens ship to power down before once again forcing a dock and boarding and stealing all they can, the main thing to remember is that the larger mother ship mainly goes for slow fat trader ships were there large mother ship has the hold space for most if not all of the cargo, while the other tends to hit passenger ships going for more high priced items like jewels etc.' taking a deep breath Collin brought an end to his say ' even thou I had designs that would have exceled against either type of pirate none I had could do a good job on both considering whatever was built would have to be capable against both. Even thou we can build something as big as a destroyer the logistics would be imposable so I'm thinking of something in the Corvette size'

Weeks later Collin was sitting at the desk in his bedroom staring of in to space, in his mind's eye he could add and remove, adjust or twist the parts he wanted. Jeeves had supplied him with a list of weapons; jack had been a lot busier than he said having been uploading every scrap of ship tech he could get, from every planet, government and research group he could, even forcing Oscar to add even more storage to Jeeves memory blocks. The nano baths could make nearly anything they would need. Knowing what he had to work with was all that he was missing in his mind he could see his ship coming together at last, two 250mm Gauss Gun in fixed forwould mounting with an Optimal Range of 30.01 km would be the main armament with four Kinetic Auto gun's, with a high damage rate and turret mounted they would effectively eliminate enemy fighters and bombers. Each turret had two barrels, each firing up to 30 Flechette rounds per minute with an optimal range of 9.00 Km. and finally he had decided on six Dual Pulse Laser defence systems with an Optimal Range encase of any missiles or torpedoes. In his design so far he had left out missiles and torpedoes as they were beyond there ability's right now.

Next he set about positioning the critical systems, the reactor, life support, engine cooling radiators and bridge, fresh water, waste and recycling systems along with a small cargo bay and shuttle or vehicle hanger. With help from Amber he connected all the systems together, he had originally fevered a single main trunk but Amber pointed out the vulnerability's to a lucky hit and lack of redundancy so together they designed a complex web if interconnections, cross runs and redundancy lines so no one hit should prove to crippling. With Oscar he added in the control systems and as with amber he also wanted redundancy and local control sub systems so if any one part was cut off from the main AI the smaller local dumb computers took over. Elric and jack helped when it came to positioning the ship hanger and cargo bays little modification was needed in this case. Leaving Collin alone to finish the design, while the others were on tender hooks for three weeks not bothering him at college or home till he finally came to show them.

With every one seated once again in their living room Collin started but to everyone's confusion the thing shown on screen was not a space ship. 'I think for our first use and test of our building capabilities we should start with a limited run of these' he jester to the screen 'the HAULER as I call it a simple design to move goods planet side en-mass, the entire concept it K.I.S.S, keep it simple stupid, so with that in mind the hauler has redundancy's and is built with the simplest designed parts as well the easiest to replace. I came up with idea to simply test our ability's before we go in to something like our spaceship' the screen changed to show a 175 feet long ship shaped like and old earth leaf blade without the hilt and grip, Elric spoke first 'Collin I have travelled with my family off world on a number of occasions and I have never seen a ship shaped like that' smiling Collin explained 'most ship manufactures are always looking to save cost, so over time two basic shapes became standard in both civilian and military circles the first the rather angler and slab sided mass cargo ships and the cigar shaped ships for transport and military. The problem of these traditional designs is they had little choice, that is 500 years ago, now we have artificial gravity and much stronger materials to work with, but since the basic concepts always worked why change them and risk something'.

His shrug let everyone know what he thought about that tradition. Amber spoke up next 'Umm Collin not to sound like a fool but where are the ships guns?' pointing at the ship on screen the smooth hull showed only the laser defence grid, bridge, engines, cargo and hanger bay doors. The only marring on the smooth hull was the communication and sensor nodes but even these were rounded and shaped. At his nod Jeeves played a small animation of the ship, two un noticed hatches sunk in and slid aside on either side of the ships nose as the barrels of the 250mm Gauss Gun slid for would in to firing position. Next another four over looked hatches dipped in and slid aside as the Kinetic Auto guns rose out of the hull, two in the belly fore and aft and two on top at the furthest edges, one to port the other starboard. Oscar despite loving the idea of concealed gun asked why, 'well we do not what to scare our pry away do we' his grin was infectious and soon everyone was smiling.

As there second year came to an end and there first HAULER was ready to sell Elric placed its stats and low cost and low maintenance on the site he had created to sell used parts for the group. After a week of University exams and tests was over Elric checked there page and immediately called Collin to come over to his house. Ringing the doorbell Collin whipped his sweaty hands on his trouser leg Elric's family were very wealthy and always made him feel nervous, before the sound of the bell had even died away he found himself being pulled by Elric up to his room where he forced him to sit in his computer chair pointing at the screen in semi hysterics. Trying to figure out what had Elric so worked up he read the screen, and soon felt his own face go white.

After setting up the company the friends had decided to keep it quiet from their family's, now however Elric's dad had placed and order for two dozen Haulers with twenty to be broken down for shipping to his other warehouses on other planets. Siting back, his mind whirling in chaos Collin was at a loss as what to do, Elrics dad was the head of the planets biggest trade company.

Elric and Collin quickly came to a decision after their shock wore of, Elric father was at the family's office so after stopping back at Collins to get changed the two friends made their way to see Elrics dad. Waiting in the outer office Collin could not help but think on why he had introduced himself as the CFO of scrap dog industry's and Collin as the lead designer, but had not given their names. His musings were cut short as the secretary said they could go in now. Opening the door Elric entered first with Collin following who closed the door after, Elrics dad was a short stocky man with short greying hair.

'Dad' said Elric

'Son' replied the man drawing the word out, 'I suppose since the CFO of scrap dog industry's was meant to walk through my door and then my son walks in, am I to take it that the CFO and my son are the same man?' knowing that Elric dad always referred to his friend as boy calling him a man must have surprised his friend. Giving a sharp nod of his head Elric continued 'I am father, and may I introduce the CEO and head designer of scrapyard dog industry's my friend Collin' keeping the surprise of his face at being called the CEO Collin nodded 'A pleasure sir'. Being waved to take their seat the two boys sat and Collin placed a small projector on the desk, activating it a small slowly turning model of the hauler could be seen above the desk.

Neither Elric or Collin relaxed until the tram pulled out of the station, the meeting had gone well with Elric explaining the lifter in terms of business profits and Collin explaining how the design was cheap to build, run and repair. With the signing of documents scrapyard industries had made its first sale.

Year 015

C3

After the second year exam results the friends gathered to celebrate, yesterday they had all sat down there parents and guardians and told them about scrapyard industries, amber and jacks parents were dubious of their children going in to business but still showed there full support, At home Elrics dad had simply asked how things were going, Oscar's mother and father had immediately demanded money resulting in Oscar now living at the warehouse, Collins uncle had asked a lot of questions before wishing his nephew good luck.

With the start of their final year the four found themselves celebrity's on campus as word got around of their business and its successes, the construction of the hauler was taking up all the warehouses time as other companies ordered their own, the area around the site was swiftly being cleaned up as the scrap was broken down then rebuilt as haulers. With others students coming to them with business ideas and others just looking for hand-outs they had in a way made themselves even more isolated from their fellow students .

Helping his uncle go through the inventory of his orbiting scrapyard Collin came across an unusual entry, the cruise ship smiling star with a Length of 458.45 m (1,504.10 ft) and a Beam of 68.8 m (225.72 ft), she was also estimated at 260,941 tons. With 16 passenger decks giving her a Capacity of 6, 400 passengers and a Crew of 2,000, last owned by Wärtsilä cruise lines sold for scrap when maintenance became too much. Siting in orbit for nearly thirty years, copying all the information to Jeeves he found himself looking for would to meeting with the others.

Later in the evening at the warehouse Collin called everyone together, they could all tell he was excited about something, 'I have an idea and I want you all to tell me what you think' the light dims as Jeeves shows a 3d hologram of the smiling star 'this ship is in my uncles orbiting scrapyard it's the passenger ship smiling star with a Length of 458.45 m (1,504.10 ft) and a Beam of 68.8 m (225.72 ft), she was also estimated at 260,941 tons. With 16 passenger decks giving her a Capacity of 6, 400 passengers and a Crew of 2,000, last owned by Wärtsilä cruise lines my idea is this, we buy this ship and gut her rebuilding her in to part mobile refinery for asteroids' the front quarter of the ship light up ' part manufacturing' another area light up ' and ship building and repair' this time two colures show the first indicating a medium sized shipyard in the hollowed out centre of the ship but open to space through retractable doors on her keel. The second colour shows two collapsible gantries one on each side of the ship for repairs.

'If we can do this we can get all the resources we need from the asteroid belts we can also build all the needed parts ourselves hear for now and we will be mobile'.

Elric and amber were both shaking their heads at Collins idea 'To big Collin the logistics for that would drown us and we would have to hire a lot of people, sorry dude just not yet' amber was nodding now ' I agree, I'm sorry Collin it's just too much for now, later maybe'

Slumping back in to his seat Collin sighed 'I guess I did let my imagination get away from me, sorry guys'. Well, interrupted jack ' the final lot of haulers is coming of the line at the end of the month, and doing them for a test was a dame good idea, there were more bugs than Oscar and I thought there would be, but we got them all nailed down'.

Oscar spoke up next ' true but most of those were my fault, the software was my doing and most were pieces I got from all over, getting it to all work was…iffy but done and de-bugged now, all ready for a big build our first true ship'.

'That reminds me' Elric said 'to get our license certified to build ships our first has to past a whole bunch of tests, but once done were totally legit it's mostly proof to show that what we build is safe' Collin was getting over his latest plan being shot down 'what kind of tests we talking about, what we're planning is a small war ship after all?'

Elric took out his e-pad and started to summarise ' well …..we can build to your design but no weapons that's a different set of tests to sell a combat ship, but since were going to use it not sell it, the test are for life support and its redundancy's, navigation systems and software and there backups, same for power, hull and frame strength, they're going to put it through its paces, I read somewhere they called it space readiness trials or sum such, and all new designs go through them.'

Collin could not help but smile, listing to Elric he was also looking at his own E-pad at his ship 'Ascalon will blow their socks off' Amber was laughing while jack looked confused 'you named it Ascalon? What a daft name,' Jack frowned even deeper after Ambers outburst 'isn't that the name of the ST. Georg spear? The one he killed the dragon with?'

'yes it is my friends, for with it we hunt dragons' Collins smile was downright predatory now.

Standing up Oscar made ready to leave 'before we get started on the build lets concentrate on our studies for now, we all have things we need to do, I for one am going to pass at the top of my class, what about every one else?' jack and Elric agreed while amber wanted to work with Collin on refining the design before the build started. Agreeing to meet again after exams the friend split up.

Year 015

The dragon's lair.

In the dark of the room the light from the monitor cast its sole occupant in en eerie blue light, even hunched over the figure gave of a sense of strength and foreboding, this was a man of the hunt. Captain Maximillian Valona or max to the few he could tolerate hunched over his privet computer terminal scanning through news and other information sites looking for the next target of his ship the Iron Claw, the claw was a destroyer, retired from service just thirty years ago.

A news article caught his attention it said that a lot of rich and power full people were going to watch some rare stellar event, cross checking the dates and locations he had found his new prize. Sending a text order to the navigator, the claw disengaged from the small merchant it had run down. Sliding in to bed he smiles at the ships slight vibrations as the ships guns tore the trader apart, the other captain had followed all of his order, believing he and his crew would live if they just did as told. The spinning wreck and its dozen dead crew brought good dream to Captain Maximillian Valona.

Year 016

C4

Six months after they had last been together they were once age all in the warehouse/ assembly plant /hanger, Collin looked his friends over as they all took their normal seats. They all looked much the same, Elric had lost some Wight and looked fitter, amber was for the first time he could remember wearing a dress, Oscar and jack were looking at the same E-pad arguing. Everyone had kept in touch veer e-mail and met up in two or three's but now all were together again.

Collin decided to get the meeting started, with a fake thought clearing he had every ones attention 'welcome back every one and congratulations on your scores we all toped our classes' after a quick round of hear hear's from the others Collin continued ' with every ones help I have completed the Ascalon design, Jeeves pleas open the file named Ascalon Mk3 and show it on the main screen….oh and dime the lights' while taking his seat Jeeves did as instructed. The screen light with a slowly spinning ship much like the original in shape, Collin started to point out the main features. 'From inside out we start with a Mk8 duel Fusion reactor, surrounding that is the engine room fuel tanks etc.' as Collin pointed out piece it was highlighted in the screen. 'Four would of engineering we have the hanger and in front of that the cargo holds. On the next deck up we have living quarters, mess, rec room and the bridge, Running throughout the ship is the ER-corp latest life support systems the F.T.L.E initiatives waste, sanitation and recycling system along with anti grav and the FTL emitters'.

Rubbing his hand together Collin sat for would ' now some special bits, first the heat sinks, those large tank looking things on either side of engineering mean that when we want we can drop out thermal output to nothing for about two hours before they fill and we got to shut down an vent the contained heat, combined with the faraday cage just under the ship's hull that drops our e/m out put down a lot, and gives us a great stealth system. But to make us even harder to hit the ship's hull is shaped to absorb or deflect radar and lidar, that's why it still looks so smooth. Next is something jack helped me to cook up, instead of going with the navy's double tritanium hull and one self-sealing layers, we went triple with and extra outer coating of artificial sapphire imbedded in the titanium making lasers next to useless against us, this will give us a very thick hull but with level of atomisation the ship will have to keep the crew levels down, we got the space.'

'Coming to the end but not yet, we have weapons we still have two 250mm Gauss Gun in fixed for would mounting with an Optimal Range of 30.01 add four turret mounted Kinetic Auto gun's, they would effectively eliminate enemy fighters and bombers each firing up to 30 Flechette rounds per minute with an optimal range of 9.00 Km or 10 penetrator rounds per minute with an optimal range of 11.00 Km. and finally six Dual Pulse Laser tied to the defence systems with an Optimal Range and to tie it all together as well as be its brain a series five AI'

With his presentation over the light came back up and he asked for comments first as always was Amber, pointing at the greyed arrears on either side of the cargo hold 'what's those empty bits for? Missiles?' Collin nodded 'bingo, we may not be able to build those and not knowing what kind we could get I left thou blank for later'

'So this hull was why you were pestering me?' asked jack. 'That's right and sorry for not telling you what that was all about too' 'no problem, kind of glad you're looking out for us you know?'

Elric was doing something on his e-pad ' that's a big hold for a ship that size and a separate hanger bay, if we can't find pirates we could do good work ship small cargo fast'

Looking around he found Oscar staring of in to space with a stooped grin 'a series five AI, Really?' catching on quick Collin smiled at his friend 'yup and all your to program to!' turning back to everyone he took his own e-pad out and shot files to the others 'I just shot you all a list of things we got to do be four the build can start, Elric I need you to order what's on the list I just sent, amber can to do a check on our hardware while Oscar does software?. Oscar after that or when you can help jack to scavenge every piece of military software you can for the AI it's useless if it has no idea what we want from it. It was great seeing you all again now the booze',

Bursting his bubble amber said she had a date and would start tomorrow and left, Elric had to get back to help his dad finish a deal but would get ordering the parts tonight. Jack and Oscar stayed and together the three drunk there two way would friend's portion two, none of the three cared about the hangover to come.

One year later

Looking out over the construction area from the lofty view of the manager's office Collin watched as the arms moved, the ship was taking shape, the main skeleton frame was done engines in, reactor installed. He watched as the next section of frame was moved in to place, the chaotic seaming dance as the bots worked over the ship welding, placing, fitting and running cables, fibre optics and pipes of all types. They had been held up a week with the late delivery of the Mk8 duel Fusion reactor, but were back on track, the mains for the ER-corp life support systems and the F.T.L.E initiatives waste, sanitation and recycling system were being plumed in along with the computer runs with the AI arriving in two months the plan was going well.

Elric was once again going over forms, this time from the regency of Halo, a multiple system monarchy, with the parts ordered and on the way he was making connections and cutting deals with all the governments he could reach.


End file.
